WIN! Double passes to COLETTE, which will be coming to NZ cinemas on February 14. Comment to enter. New Zealand entries only.
ABOUT COLETTE
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as “Willy” (Dominic West), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendour of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghost-write for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette's fight over creative ownership defies gender roles and drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionising literature, fashion and sexual expression. #colettemovie

Was hoping to like this a bit more tbh, Keira Knightly and Dominic West were terrific, but the film never got above decent imo. You would think a film about a pioneering feminist bisexual writer would be more captivating but for what reason it didn’t quite grab me as much I would of liked. An interesting story and certainly educational for me, but aside from the performances and subject matter it’s a fairly standard biopic. 6/10

There is something incessantly captivating about the whole thought that before the blitzkrieg of feminism in our society, there lived a woman called Colette in the early twentieth century. One who is an amalgam of beautiful contradictions, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (played by #KeiraKnightley ) is a woman of autonomy. She lets her husband Henry “Willy” Gauthier-Villars control her movements but only to the extent that she wanted him to. Directed by Wash Westmoreland, Colette chronicles the volatile early life of the iconic woman who had seen it all by the time she turned 30.
Often pictured as a portrait of countryside quaintness, Gabrielle’s Burgundian childhood bred enough juice for an exotic story – on and off the pages meant for public consumption. The lissome lass marries the 14-year elder Willy (#DominicWest ) who is a bourgeois writer based in Paris. Concealing Willy’s mediocrity was his capricious persona, extravagant lifestyle and manipulative methods to stay relevant. When bankruptcy hits him hard, Willy orders his wife that she writes. One with a natural penchant for the pen, Colette leisurely takes up the challenge and creates a character that goes on to become a household name in France – Claudine. This is despite facing brutal rejection from her haughty husband in the past with regards to her ability to engage a reader.
Full review on www.filmysasi.com
#Colette#Willy#Literature#Literary#Author#Writer#Biopic#Europe#France#French#FrenchLiterature#FrenchCinema#Claudine#Paris#WashWestmoreland#RebeccaLenkiewicz#RichardGlatzer#Missy#DeniseGough#Bisexuality#LGBTQ#Cinema#Movies#Films

COLETTE
As usual Keira Knightly did a great performance. Set in the 1900, this movie was based on a writer called Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette who became the ghost writer for her husband Henry Gauthier-Villars (Willy). The movie shows the growth of Colette. How she started off as an innocent young girl who is in love with an older man, married him and does everything to keep him happy. This journey brings out her talent on becoming a great writer to the book series Claudine. She writes under her husband Willy's name and her books become very popular. Her husband fuels her curiosity by encouraging her lesbian encounters just so this can be materialised into her books. Colette faces many trials and trouble in her marriage to Willy, he refuses to add her name to the books and she eventually leaves him. This movie really takes us to the past -to the writers life and experience. How a girl from a small town became someone we celebrate now.
I would definitely recommend watching this! 🐼👍🏼 #Colette#france#paris#books#writer#keiraknightley#movie#claudine#DominicWest

This saucy little number isn’t your usual period piece... The Kiera Knightley starring #Colette - a tale of a now famous French novelist whose written work was, at first, published under her husbands name - is a fantastically sassy delight. Sex and sexism set to the backdrop of the artistic corners of 19th century Paris, it’s a film that surprises and flourishes the more spicy it gets. It may be set a long time ago, but it feels fresh in both its themes and language with Dominic West and Kiera Knightley setting the tone as an extremely watchable pairing. Among the sharp dialogue and enjoyable character dynamics, the angst of our leading pair may have got lost a little a long the way - leading the overall conclusion to feel slightly unwarranted - but there’s too much good stuff in this to let that bother you too much. My favourite film of the year so far. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Films2019#MovieReviews#Colettev#KeiraKnightley#DominicWest

‘Colette’ (15) (Directed by Wash Westmoreland) ****1/2
1890s, Paris. Naive country girl Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) marries literary entrepreneur Henry Gautier ‘Willy’ Villiers, (Dominic West) and moves into his apartment in Paris. Willy, an apparently successful writer, employs a small team of ghostwriters to produce his novels, short stories and articles. When finances become tight, he pressurises Colette into writing a memoir of her school days. The resulting book ‘Claudine at School’ (1900), published under the ‘Willy’ pseudonym, is a huge success, particularly with young women. As Colette comes under increasing pressure from Willy to write more ‘Claudine’ books, she begins to resent her husband’s obvious infidelity and refusal to allow her to take public ownership of her own work... Set against the lovingly recreated backdrop of Paris during the Belle Époque, with Budapest standing in for Paris and frequent visual references to the artists of the time (Seurat, Renoir, Caillebotte), ‘Colette’ feels achingly authentic in every frame. Too many biopics of great writers and artists are more interested in the life than the work, but In this film we get a sense of how Colette and Willy make their living; we see a great writer actually writing. Richard Glatzer’s screenplay keeps the focus on Colette’s struggle for her own identity, not just in terms of acknowledged authorship of her work, but also the right to unfettered self-expression in a male-dominated world. Keira Knightley is impressive as a talented, but reluctant writer, frustrated by the confines of her own bourgeois marriage and wider French society. And Dominic West as Willy strikes just the right balance between lovable rogue and manipulative charlatan. A terrific film that seems to have been strangely overlooked this awards season ****1/2
@colette#colette#keiraknightley#dominicwest#washwestmoreland#film#movies#moviesofinstagram#cinema@broadwaycinema

2 days ago018

Better to be late to the show than not at all. Finally watching this on dvd (so if anyone wants to borrow, just ask)...sooo soo good! Hooked after the first 3 episodes! #theaffair#dominicwest#ruthwilson ....special features too. How fabulously old school!

Odeon Limitless 271 - Colette - “Colette is pushed by her husband to write novels under his name. Upon their success, she fights to make her talents known, challenging gender norms” - Before seeing this film I thought I might be just adding this film as a statistic viewing and at best might find passable. Little did I expect was for me to come away absolutely enjoying it. It is a drama that sets off at a steady pace as we are introduced to the characters as Gabrielle and “Willy” court and then get married. But the film really picks up when Colette starts writing her Claudine books to be published under the name of her unfaithful husband. It was fascinating to see how she would write from her experiences and transfer them to the book and as the more publications come she embarks on her own affairs with other women and writes of these experiences also. Now admittedly I am not a huge Keira Knightley fan (can’t explain why), but I really enjoyed her performance which was initially vulnerable and then stronger as her character progressed. Dominic West was also fantastic and is enjoying a career high at the moment. Might not be for people that do not enjoy period dramas but the toxic relation between Colette and Willy had me hooked as Colette goes on a journey of discovery 7.5/10.

So I said I liked the last Punisher film with Thomas Jane and I would have loved a sequel. But after development hell and people dropping out, we instead got another remake and my god, this is worst than the first one. Now we got Ray Stevenson as The Punisher and this was the first Marvel film produced under Marvel Knights(remember this for a future review).
So the plot is The Punisher is going after Jigsaw(not the guy from Saw but that would be a cool crossover) played by Dominic West. That's basically it. The story isn't that great, the action has some gore but some moments, it's ridiculous. Stevenson did a good job as Punisher but West did horrible as Jigsaw. Just out of the three Punisher films, I just did not like this one. Also they killed Wayne Knight who played Microchip. It's a bad film, don't watch it. Thank God, Netflix gave us a far superior Punisher who will never go awa....god damn it.
#punisherwarzone#thepunisher#frankcastle#jigsaw#microchip#raystevenson#dominicwest#wayneknight#marvel#antihero#vigilantes#comicbooks#movies#omega#moviereviews

Colette is certainly a film. Is it good, is it bad, is it a bit of both? Well, thank you for asking. I am here today to let you all know how my experience of Colette went and whether I think it’s good enough for you all to watch…
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Ehhh, maybe, maybe not. The movie itself is very generic. It’s structured, filmed, performed, etc, in all the same ways biographical films set pre-50s would be. The pacing, music and other things are equally as similar. This isn’t a problem though as this is a biographical movie, its all about the story of the historical figure, not how well each shot was framed.
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The story however is very important and definitely one that should be told to all people alive today. It may not please some viewers, it may piss them off immeasurably but those who are wish for general equality among all people and see there is still an enormous gap with how we treat both sexes, it will do rather nicely for them. It isn’t life changing stuff. No one will explode with energy, become a new person and change their entire life. All it really does is inspire self-love and pride and lift the spirit up for those hiding in the shadows of judgement.
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But if you want to experience this film.. Prepare for mind-numbingly awful dialogue and some of the most over the top, Shakespearian-theatre-like acting. The dialogue sound as if they were plucked from an overly enthusiastic love letter written by a literature professor from the Victorian Era to their mistress who is currently bathing in expensive champagne and swan tears. Long words mixed with adjective after adjective, each word unnecessarily hinting at other meanings… It’s an English teachers wet dream… But for a casual like me, its unnatural and I hate it.
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But despite this hiccup, its not too bad. It isn’t amazing but these type of films aren’t really suppose to stun you. It’s just a good story based on a real person who you’ll never be as famous as.
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#colette#biographical#drama#keiraknightley#dominicwest#elearnortomlinson#denisegough#aiyshahart#france#french#paris#book#books // #reviews#filmreviews#moviereviews#dvd#review#netflix#cinema#posters#poster#films#film#movies#movie#peterisd

Wash Westmoreland - Collette (2018)
It's easy to become jaded with the plethora of biopics going around. Often they tell stories about characters you already know more than enough about and also often tone it down to be palatable to a general audience. Fortunately this is not the case with Collette. The subject is interesting without having been made to death and the setting at the transition from the 19th to the 20th century in Belle Époque Paris is both interesting and brings out unexpected relevance to our times.
Collette tells the story of what is probably the most famous woman writer in the history of French literature. As such it is also a film about feminism, about being a woman in a world dominated by men and making your voice heard, as well as bucking convention and living your life in your own terms, even in the comparatively sexually liberated context of the Parisian artistic society of the time. Of course it's only partially liberated, liberated for what men want, Collette can have lesbian affairs, not because she is free but because her husband gets turned on by the idea.
The visuals are great, sets, clothing, all you would expect from a top-notch costume drama. The acting is equally great with Keira Knightley being a particular standout and reminding us all how poorly used she is in the endless Pirate movies and how she can hold a 2 hour movie about a strong intelligent woman in such a natural way. Dominic West is also great as a complete bastard who is also charismatic enough to be believable that Collette would fall for him and let herself be exploited. One of the best biopics 2018.
#cinema#cinephile#keiraknightley#collette#waswestmoreland#dominicwest#lgbtq#bellepoque#literature#movie#moviereview#film#filmreviews#paris#poster#filmposter#movieposter

Finally, we have a biopic of the legendary French writer and all around creative genius Colette starring both Keira Knightly and Dominic West. Naturally, this is a historical drama but the overall underlying notions of hidden females and men using them for their own ends are as modern as it comes. Powered by two splendid performances from Knightly and West as the explosive couple, what could have turned out as a drab standard costume romp turns out to be so much more. Powerful female-driven stories are slowly becoming the norm and the industry as a whole is benefitting non-endingly. Modern

6 days ago434

Colette - 15- 1hr 52mins
Shrimp Score: 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐🍤(7.5)
(Eating system: 🦐= 1 , 🍤=0.5, 🍿=These go to 11 ‘We really want to do a film about Colette, the French author’
‘Ah nice, which French actress have you got lined up?’ ‘Keira Knightley..’
‘Erm she’s not French’
‘I know’
‘Oh.. can she speak French?’
‘No’
‘So she’s going to speak English throughout? How’s that going to work with everyone else speaking French?’
‘Oh no, don’t worry. We are making everyone speak in English’
‘.....’ It is true, the whole film was set in France however everyone had posh English accents 😂 but it did work! (Although not sure how the French will feel)
It’s a story about a young country girl finds the older rich city Gentlemen, where she is expected to basically live and look pretty for parties (husband is an ‘author’ who is very charismatic).
Colette is different and wants more and wants to write and she does! However set in and around 1900 it meant women were still not ‘popular’ in popular culture meaning she was in essence a ghostwriter.
An intriguing side story was both their relationships with not just each other but how open their relationship really was. You think just because it is the Victorian ages that they are all prude, trust me they are not! (Although they are French 😜 🇫🇷). I love a true story and it was beautifully portrayed, great casting! Portrayal of another strong woman who may have had a soft spot for women... 😉. Worth putting the Shrimp on the barbie? 👍
#Movie#movies#moviereview#Moviereviews#film#films#moviedate#movienight#review#reviews#odeon#odeoncinema#limitless#cinema#bournemouthodeon#bh2#popcornshrimp#colette#keiraknightley#dominicwest#colettefilm